As I reported a few weeks ago…
BEA upgrades Java server software. The company delivers the first components of an important release of its Java server software and drops the price of its entry-level Java server product. [CNET News.com]
Monthly Archives: March 2003
CDMA = Congressman Darrell, Major Ass
Congressman Darrell Issa wants the DoD to buy CDMA cellular network technology for Iraq's postwar wireless infrastructure. (Iraq is one of three countries without a major cellular system; Afghanistan and North Korea are the others. Guess we'll fix that problem for both of them, too.) Congressman Issa has drafted legislation to make that happen, complaining that GSM is “European” technology, and that licensing royalties would go to French and German companies if the DoD follows its current plan.
“If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq,” Issa wrote in a letter to the DoD and to the US Agency for International Development, “much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders.”
Well, at least the money wouldn't flow back to his district, as it would if CDMA was chosen.
Congressman Issa is from the San Diego area, home of Qualcomm–the patent-holder for CDMA. He founded a company called Directed Electronics, which until last year was working with Qualcomm joint-venture Wingcast to develop hardware for “automotive telematics” based on CDMA technology. According to OpenSecrets.org, he recieved over $160,000 in compensation in 2001 from Directed (deferred from his wages in 2000, while he was still serving on the company's board). Qualcomm was his sixth largest campaign contributor.
GSM is an open international standard. CDMA isn't used by any of Iraq's neighbors. But, dammit, if anybody is going to profit from this war, it should be Darrell Issa, right?
Cakewalk promised, now denied
Dick Cheney said “weeks, not months” when asked by Tim Russert how long it would take to reach total victory in Iraq. But this is the least of a series of comments the administration made to sell the war to the American public in the days before the war began, as revealed by this article in Salon. (paid subscription content, sorry).
You know things are bad when…
Bangladesh is sending humanitarian aid to Iraq–$2 million dollars worth. As a percentage of GDP, that dwarfs US aid to anyboduy.
Liberating the Iraqi people…from their limbs.
While hackers have made Al Jazeera block access to its English-language site, you can still see the horrors of war for Iraqi civilians at its arabic language site. WARNING- the photos on the linked page are graphic.
This is what the rest of the world is seeing. This is what's influencing the rabid anti-US demonstrations around the world. This is why, even if a fraction of these images are manufactured, or the result of Iraq's own anti-aircraft fire, the war against Iraq cannot be called a war of liberation with a straight face. Sure, it's propaganda–just like what we're seeing on CNN. But it's rooted in truth, and that truth is going to haunt us for years to come.
VP's Daughter: Human Shield, Cease-Fire negotiator, or home baking cookies?
Here's one of the wildest rumors of the last week:
Al Jazeera claims that a delegation is on the way to Baghdad to negotiate a cease fire, as of last Wednesday. The report is based on an article from the United Arab Emirates' “leading semi-official daily newspaper, Alittihad”. Allegedly along for the ride with the delegation is “Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the US Vice President Dick Cheney, representing the US Department of State, where she works as an Assistant to the Deputy of the Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs.”
There had been reports in other foriegn press and alternative media that Liz Cheney was on her way to become a “human shield”. Those reports appear to have been denied by the administration, saying that the VP is not headed to Amman to stop his daughters as had been reported elsewhere. “Everyone, including Dad, is stateside,” reported the right-wing rag The Washington Times.
